Dear Abby: My husband and I are fielding some snide comments because of our daughter’s choice of college major: dance.

When people with college-age kids or grandkids find out, their expression or tone of voice speaks volumes.“Oh, really?” they say.

Our daughter has always been an honors student. I want these people to realize that it takes guts to pursue a career in dance and/or choreography. We support her decision, and she already has an associate’s degree that will prove useful as a backup.

Why can’t people understand that fine-arts majors are brave, bold and passionate about their crafts? — Dancer’s Mom in Texas

Dear Dancer’s Mom: If you react to the comments positively rather than defensively, your remarks would give you the opening to smile and tell these “conventional thinkers” how proud you are of your daughter’s decision to pursue her dreams.

******

Dear Abby: I tend to react poorly when someone pulls a prank on me. My reaction is usually hurt or embarrassment, and I might say or do things I later regret.

My husband has always liked playing pranks, and my children have started to follow his lead. The pranks tend to involve things like putting ice down the back of my shirt or bopping the end of a glass or bottle while I’m drinking from it, so it splashes in my face.

I don’t like it, and I don’t do it to them. If I react, I am deemed the “bad guy” because I “can’t take a joke.”I feel guilty about the latest incident because when my l0-year-old daughter bopped a drink in my face, I slapped her across the face. When I apologized, she said, “Dad does it all the time.”

How do I get my family to understand that these “jokes” aren’t funny to me? — Unamused in Indiana

Dear Unamused: Jokes at the expense of others can be funny if everyone agrees that they’re funny. Because you’ve told your husband that you don’t find his pranks amusing, I can only conclude that his sense of humor is sadistic. And it sets a poor example for the kids.

I wonder how he would react if you poured a pitcher of ice water on him at 2 a.m.? Would that be “funny”? I doubt it. Normally, I wouldn’t stoop to such a level, but this might call for an exception.

For every movie that enjoys critical and commercial success, there’s a total stinker that flops at the box office and gets savaged by critics.There have been thousands of terrible movies released down the years — some of which can be quite enjoyable in the right setting.While some movies fall into the ‘so-bad-they’re-good’ category and end up as cult favourites, some are simply downright unwatchable. From vanity projects to sordid horror movies, these are the worst films ever made.Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000

Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is John Travolta‘s infamously terrible passion project, released back in 2000. Based on the novel from Scientology founder L Hubbard, the movie follows the journey of a human slave fighting back against the alien overlords who have enslaved earth. The movie features laughable dialog…

Angry Creamsicle, Comrade Cheetolino, Mango Mussolini, Agent Orange – these are just a few of the nicknames that Donald Trump has picked up along his presidential road. Trump may ethnically identify as “white”, but his skin is categorically and scathingly portrayed as orange.When Trump was elected in 2016, succeeding former president Barack Obama, I remember references such as “orange is the new black”. At once an allusion to the popular Netflix series and a bold comment on race, colour here functions as an important form of satire. And this satiric use of colour has persisted throughout Trump’s presidency. His recent UK visit witnessed the orange baby balloon and orange-faced protesters continuing this in full force.A woman demonstrates during Trump’s trip to Scotland.Lesley Martin/PA Wire/PA ImagesMy specialism is the history of tanning, so I find this particular form of humour fascinating. It’s striking that Trump’s skin tone, above all else, has prompted such a level of derision. …